Worst day of travel, ever

I cannot begin to explain how horrible this day has been.

It began half way decently. I was saved from a cold, lonely walk in the wee hours of the morning by a kind Dutch cabby in Amsterdam, but then was defeated for a time by the closed ticket offices (it was 5 am after all) and the money machines that didn't take the kind of plastic I had on me.

Thankfully I found an open ticket office (didn't take cards!) and an ATM machine that took VISA and I was in business again. A quick train ride to Schipol, and I thought my troubles were over. Man, when I am wrong, I am wrong.

The flight was uneventful, watched some decent movies, didn't sleep per usual of course. A little less than 9 hours later I was in the US again, going through customs in Detroit. All was well until I got to my connecting flight gate. The flight was delayed an hour and 40 minutes, which sucked, but wasn't a complete loss.

Then the great gate shuffle started. By the time I went back and forth from one side of the airport to the other a couple of times, it was close to departure time, so what else could go wrong? Yeah they cancelled the flight. Bugger. Instead of putting me on the flight that was leaving 30 minutes from that moment in time, they push me to a flight at 10 Monday morning.

It was at this moment that my crazy eye started twitching. Bad stuff happens when the crazy eye starts a twitchin'. It was here that a better man would have stoically accepted his fate and found a hotel to check into.

I can be accused of being a great many things, but being that caliber of a human being is not one of them. Also a flaminco dancer. I definitely can't be accused of being one of those. I look horrible in stretchy pants.

And so I bore down on the manager at the counter with the aforementioned crazy eye, now in full twitch mode, and explained that I hadn't seen my wife and 2 year old son in an intolerable amount of time, and I was not... enthused about having to wait another day to see them.

So intolerably long story just long, I got a flight to Cleveland that then connects to Lexington. I should be home by 10:20 this evening. Only 8 hours later than expected.

Sigh, some days it doesn't pay to travel across the pond. Know what I mean?

Tagged: and

  1. personal avatar Heather Daviscommenter rank
    Stroll on over and visit Heather Davis
    April 13, 2008

    I have seen Chris in stretchy pants, and agree when he says that he doesn't look good in stretchy pants.

  2. personal avatar Michael C. Harriscommenter rank
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    April 13, 2008

    Just be thankful you don't live in Australia, because it's a long way to anywhere from here. A friend of mine once took two weeks to get from New York to Melbourne. She doesn't have a crazy eye, but she was mighty glad to be home.

  3. personal avatar clintcommenter rank
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    April 14, 2008

    wow thats some sillyness! hope you are home safe and sound by now man.

  4. personal avatar Chris J. Daviscommenter rank
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    April 15, 2008

    I am thankful that I don't live in Australia, but mostly because it is freaking hot there. I don't like being hot yo.

    And yeah, I am thankful I got home safe and sound Clint. I really missed the family and strangely they missed me too!

  5. personal avatar Jaysoncommenter rank
    Stroll on over and visit Jayson
    April 16, 2008

    Good news you got home only 8 hours late. I've heard horror stories that make me happy to sit home and never leave!!

    It seems like you took things well enough - most people start bitchi$ and crying when a flight is 30 minutes delayed. You made it a couple hours before the twitch came out.

  6. personal avatar Joelcommenter rank
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    April 21, 2008

    Not sure how you pulled it off, but I recently found out that "Rule 240" can help out in these situations:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22900119/

    Glad you made it back safely, regardless!

  7. personal avatar Atomic Bombshellcommenter rank
    Stroll on over and visit Atomic Bombshell
    April 25, 2008

    Just had a similar thing happen on a connecting flight in Phoenix while coming back from Cabo. Since I'm a girl, I opted for weeping instead of the crazy eye. The good news is that we each got home that same night. Whatever works!

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